On March 23, 2015, UCLA Health released a
new video which chronicles the medical treatment of Worthington & Caron, PC client
Martha Munoz. Martha was 68 years old when she was diagnosed with malignant pleural
mesothelioma in March 2009. Her husband Arturo states in the video that
Martha’s doctors were giving her only 9 to 10 months to live.
In April 2009, Martha consulted with
Dr. Robert Cameron, thoracic surgeon and director of the Comprehensive Mesothelioma Program
at UCLA Medical Center. The video chronicles Martha’s treatment
at UCLA, beginning with a lung-sparing
pleurectomy/decortication
surgery performed by Dr. Cameron in May 2009.
“Surgery is actually the most reliable treatment,” Dr. Cameron
states in the video, “The goal is to remove all tumor we can see
and take it off the lung and leave the lung in place."
The video shows a striking comparison of radiology films of Martha’s
right lung before and after the surgery. The “before” films
show tumor encasing and compressing the lung, making it extremely difficult
to breathe. The “after” films show all visible tumor gone
and the lung expanding fully to the rib cage.
Following the surgery, Martha’s treatment included
chemotherapy, state-of-the-art tomotherapy and novel cryoablation therapy which freezes
and destroys new small tumors.
As Dr. Cameron explains, “Our idea is to treat this as a chronic
disease, so what we do is use surgery to get rid of all the tumor we can
see and use the other things like
radiation,
immunotherapy and cryoablation to keep it that way, just like we do with other chronic
diseases that people can live a long time with.”
The video reports that six years after her
diagnosis, Martha is now cancer free. “This is what you call a miracle,”
says Arturo. While Martha states, “We are a very close family, and
with God’s help and Dr. Cameron’s help, I can have a healthy
longer life.”
To schedule an appointment with Dr. Cameron:
Contact his office at (310) 470-8980.
Dr. Cameron sees patients in consultation at his Los Angeles, California
clinic located at:
Thoracic Surgery Associates
10780 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90025-7613